The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project is a university-chartered research center
associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University

Draft Stevenson Committee

In 1960 Dwight Eisenhower's
second term in the White House was drawing to a close, and
while it was clear that the Republicans would nominate Vice-President
Richard Nixon to succeed him, it was unclear whom the Democrats
would nominate in opposition. Foremost among potential Democratic
candidates was Senator John F. Kennedy, who had thrown his
hat in early, and only slightly less formidable was the
Senate's Democratic Leader, Lyndon B. Johnson. There were
even some people who continued to support Adlai
Stevenson–the twice-defeated Democratic nominee
from 1952 and 1956– though most Democrats were uncomfortable
with giving the nod to someone who had been rejected by
the American people on more than one occasion.

Despite these reservations, Stevenson's hardcore loyalists
organized a committee to draft the candidate for the nomination,
since he was unwilling to openly campaign for it on his
own behalf. Placing advertisements and collecting donations,
the Draft Stevenson Committee mounted a grassroots effort
to swing the nomination to their candidate. In this they
were aided by the increasingly poor state of U.S.-Soviet
relations, which highlighted the need for a more internationalist
foreign policy. As their movement picked up steam through
the spring and early summer, Eleanor Roosevelt and other
longtime allies began taking a greater interest in the
committee's work. With the Democratic National Convention
approaching
in July, ER agreed to serve as the committee's honorary
chairman, and she attended the convention in Los Angeles
intent upon seeing Stevenson nominated. Investing a large
amount of her energy and personal prestige in his candidacy,
ER was disheartened when the delegates selected JFK instead.
The Draft Stevenson Committee had simply failed to attract
enough support, and to its ardent supporters the Kennedy
candidacy initially represented little more than a regrettable,
pragmatic shift to the right in the Democratic Party.